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Folks, Please, It’s Too Early For Holiday Lights

Come on, it’s not even Thanksgiving! OK, next year, whoever sends me a photo of someone who puts up holiday lights before Halloween gets a free lunch with me at Fearings!

Dallas Real Estate: Will This Outlet Pass Inspection?

It’s not a GFI, mighty close to that sink, and the tub is conveniently just around the corner. ZZZZZZZZZZ!

Otherwise, cute house. Imagine finding real marble in a home built in the 1950’s.

Dallas Real Estate: Something Tells Me This House Has Foundation Issues

Either that, or they started to make a door but didn’t finish the job.

Dallas Real Estate: Finish Out Only a Mother Could Love

Maybe? Maybe they didn’t finish the framing around this attic door because they wanted a great secret place to hide valuables? Or maybe, maybe that’s the Panic Room.

Dallas Real Estate: Please Don’t Sit on the Hearth!

I am really worried about that lonely little rock holding up that hearth. If someone who might be charged for two seats on Southwest Airlines sits down with a glass of spiked eggnog in his hand… that hearth is going to be history. I mean, people live in houses and sit on hearths and the whole world does not take Alli. This was yet another one of the glorious finds in that fixer-upper I toured on Townsend. Folks, you cannot trust the photos on the internet. This fireplace was touted as a “stacked stone fireplace.” Stacked it is, all right.

Hole In The Wall? No Problem, Just Stuff It

Here’s what you won’t see on the jazzed-up internet graphics: a new way to recycle styrofoam. I saw this in a home on the market in Northwest Dallas. Here’s what you see on the internet. But wait, it gets better.

Acres of Astro Turf Invade Preston Hollow

Oh God, think I’m going to be sick. This is the house I wrote about months ago, 8787 Jourdan Way, you pass it on Douglas heading north from Northwest Highway to Walnut Hill. I used to drive carpool on this street. Months ago  Dr. H. Doug Barnes started building a $9,460,500. behemoth stucco Palm Springs-style mansion here, plastering huge, ominous signs all over the place — KEEP OUT! PRIVATE PROPERTY! PROPERTY UNDER SURVEILLANCE!!! And the best: NO PHOTOS, NO CAMERAS (because we might actually want to duplicate this home, yes). So I packed up my dogs one sunny weekend and tried to take them over there for a walk. Was stopped by a huge security guard, a former defensive tackle no doubt. He asked me to leave and leave fast because the owner was on the premises.  Do you know how hard it was to peel myself out of there? I called his office the next day, he never called me back.  I so wanted to ask for a tour and why he was re-creating a Florida hotel in Preston Hollow. Would an ocean soon follow?

Please note: Dr. Barnes, I’m told, did not make his great fortune from doctoring but eyeglass ty-cooning. Here I thought everyone was doing Lasik!

Update: Thanks to the reader who snapped and sent these in — huge hugs! This home was also listed in D Magazine’s Most Expensive Homes issue — surprise, surprise!

Ask Candy: How About A Preston Towers Condo for our Student Daughter?

Dear Candy,

My daughter is starting Baylor Nursing school in January and we are looking at places for her to live.  I am trying to decide whether to rent or buy.  In order for her to have a safe place to live, we will be paying what seems to me like a lot of rent, plus utilities.  So then I started to think about buying some place and I was considering Preston Towers. I know it is full of senior citizens, but it is really safe, really convenient, and I if I wish to sell when she finishes school, it seems that that Preston Hollow always has a built in base of people who simply do not want to leave the area for Turtle Creek or elsewhere and equally do not want to live in an assisted living situation, so they look at Preston Towers and The Athena.

I would jump at the new units on Bandera, but your post last week indicated that $215 might actually end up closer to $350, and I am not up for that kind of investment right now.  So if I bought something and re-did it I thought that might be a good plan, especially if we have a unit with a south view. Some friends in real estate do not like condo ownership, esp. older condos, because of the assessment issues with on going maintenance. I do believe P.T. is in that category of probably needing the owners to chip in on some items to update the place.  Other Realtors say “oh this is a great time to buy.” To which I say, when you’re a hammer, everything is a nail.

So what to do, what to do?

Gratzie,

Marisa

Dallas Real Estate: House Porn From the Hinterlands

So I trekked north to a baby shower for our precious Julie Blacklidge Kinzie this weekend and what did I find right across the street from the shower power house in Frisco? This sweet little number. A FSBO to boot, three bedrooms, three baths, study and two living areas on a zero lot line lot on a very pretty lake! Another plus: this house is not scrunched in like some zeros are — could be a future neighbor next door, but for now there is space and sunshine. Seller is supposed to be motivated, which to me never means FSBO unless you are on a super high traffic street with gobs of visibility. Apparently there is a putting green as well: I’m seeing retirement in your future, all for $739,000.

Dallas Real Estate: Why Does Preston Tower Look Like A 1960’s Christmas Tree?

Simple: to make it more appealing to those younger folks who grew up in the 60’s. Karen Lukin, who lives in Preston Tower, tells us:

“I have lived in my building for 11 years. Imagine my surprise to drive up and see that they’ve added uplighting, blue-revolving-to-green, that shines up 30 floors on the sides of the building. Was told it might make our 1960’s high-rise appeal to the “younger folks.”

The 29-story Preston Tower was built in 1966 and was one of Dallas’ very first high rise buildings. Only the very cool need move in.

Newsweek Hearts Dallas Arts Center But: “Time Makes Cities Beautiful”

In the latest edition of Newsweek, Cathleen McGuigan lauds our new Arts District — telling New Yorkers to watch out, that the premiere cultural complex of Lincoln Center is getting Big D competition — and that we’ve done it right, avoiding the grandiose errors of our New York forebear. What have we done right? A lot: stunning architectural design — check. But the new Winspear Opera House is also pedestrian-friendly, open and inviting everyone to come in, a true urban renaissance project. Says project architect Spencer de Grey about his first trip to Dallas in the 80’s: “when I emerged from a restaurant at 9 o’clock there wasn’t a soul on the street.” That was my reaction also when I moved here from NYC in the early 80’s — at one point I wondered if a calamity had sent everyone for cover. But my stay this past weekend at The Tower Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas proved that Dallas has evolved into a city that never sleeps. Time makes cities beautiful and busy.

McGuigan also warns that just because you build art doesn’t mean people will come: case in point, LA’s Disney Concert Hall. We are also a car-centric city and must keep LA’s lesson in mind: whatever we plan, whatever we build, you gotta take care of the darn cars that get people to the event. Make that parking inconvenient enough, those valet lines too long, folks will be tuning out to art, tuning into their PDA’s, heading back to their McMansions. And let’s be nice to our feet: one of the biggest selling points of every downtown residence is the walking proximity of the Dallas Arts Center (and yes, Victory) to all of them. So let’s also make sure we are foot friendly as well as car friendly.

Dallas Real Estate: It’s Hard To Leave 1604

My tub, my towels. Fortunately, two wonderful people rescued the D crew, the towels stayed white. Well, at least come up for a drink, I offer, wanting to run downstairs and stir up the place.  (What if we got really noisy?) Are you kidding? says Prejean. This mud and those marble floors will never meet. OK, everyone was home safe, I went to bed to gear up for another strenuous agenda: a day at the Ritz spa.

8:00 a.m. My husband, the early riser, is up after a perfect night’s sleep. Oh, how he tries to be quiet but oh, how it always fails. “Have you seen my chart bag?” Though I secretly hope it’s buried in Kaufman mud, I tell him it’s in the car. Go get it — no wait, call and ask for someone to get it for you! Test out the hot phone. “Is it HIPPA compliant?” (Peace and sleep for ten minutes. Then…) “Shall I order breakfast? What do you want?” Duct tape.

10:00 a.m. Breakfast Beautiful arrives on a wheeled cart with a warming oven below to keep it warm. I am concerned that the cart will not make it down the hall and around the center hall table, but it does: someone obviously measured, someone watched those details. I feel guilty — briefly — that I haven’t used the gourmet kitchen — the Wolf stove, the warming drawer, the twin wine fridges next to the integrated Sub Zero — well, I did use something. I load the integrated Asko dishwasher, though not necessary. Breakfast mess will be cleaned up during our massage.

11:00 a.m. What would we be doing now at home? Reading the paper, sipping coffee, surfing the internet. What are we doing now? Reading the paper, which was delivered dry inside our home, sipping coffee, surfing the internet to find Tweets of the Cattle Baron’s mudfest. Only here we are on the 16th floor, overlooking the city, thinking about mosey-ing down to that exercise room which does not require a car ride, which really takes away every excuse.

11:30 a.m. Dallas is a city that never sleeps: we are surprised by how many cars were on the roads last night, especially since half were still stuick in Kaufman. And did you notice how quiet it is in here? My husband, a perfectionist surgeon,  is impressed with the quality of the construction and the windows. It really does feel like a home, a home that floats, I say. I love watching the city in action, my husband says. I could do this. But, I say, you’ll have no garage. They have garages for your car downstairs, he says. But no tools, I say. Who needs tools? You use the hotphone.

11:45 a.m. We really are going to go downstairs and exercise.

The Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas Versus the Cattle Barons Ball

The perfect cocktail party, a five star dinner. We return to our new home in the heavens to find love in the air: someone has turned down our bed and strewn it with fresh rose petals, forming a heart right in the middle. Ah, the empty nest: my husband is asleep in five seconds; he delivered babies the night before. So I do something I’ve wanted to do since I toured the very first Dallas high rise in a hard hat: take a nice soaking bath overlooking the lights of the city in that stunning white and black veined marble bathroom.  (Just lock me in there.) The Ritz jetted tubs are by Kohler with platinum Kallista fixtures — and the  jets are perfectly placed. Robert A.M Stern is a genius, but please, no hand-sprayers? I make do with the excellent water pressure — which was also perfect when the shower was running. A-plus plus bathrooms. (And no scalding flushes — like when your spouse flushes the commode and whoever in the shower gets scorched?) So I was soaking, enjoying a magazine, breathing in the city lights and noticing for the first time that it was still raining.

Then the phone rang.

I was out of the tub within minutes of learning that my daughter and son in law had wrangled themselves out of the mud at Cattle Barons, while the D Magazine crew had to abandon their car. (”Go back” I told my daughter.) Frantic phone calls had created an image of what would become a Woodstock for thousands of Dallas millennials, an event that they would relay to their grandchildren: I survived Cattle Baron’s 2009. I got into my suitcase and found that black lounging outfit — I was going to call for the car just like a real resident, go rescue those folks, bring ‘em back to The Ritz.

“You don’t understand, we are covered in mud,” said SweetCharity Blog editor Jeanne Prejean.

Towels, they’ll need towels: I looked at the pristine white Ritz bath sheets embossed with the regal lion brand.

Let’s see just how much they want us to make ourselves at home.

Dallas Real Estate: Behind The Doors of 1604

5:00 p.m. The glam begins. After a brief tour of our new home logistics — where we get our mail, store our wine, and work the state of the art elevators, all with champagne in hand — we jet up to 1604. Otis meets NASA: The Tower’s elevators are electronically synced to your key fob, so you don’t even have to punch in your floor number — it reads it for you. (And oh so hygienic.) If you are, say, a guest who actually has to touch the keypad, you simply tap in the floor number and up you go — the elevator will never stop at another floor, so Ritz security is supreme.  What do you do if you want to visit a neighbor, borrow a cup of sugar? Good question. (Friends will also have had to get by Willie, a 6′7″ former linebacker doorman.) En route we run into a friend, physician Dr. George Zoys — he LIVES here, actually, and loves it. Come on by for a drink, we tell him, if you can outsmart the elevator. (The Tower Residences are about 75% sold out.) Our home: 1604 is a two bedroom with study plus powder room, kitchen, laundry room, dining room and balcony extraordinaire, 2700 ish square feet. First thing we do is check out the view: wow! We spy Cowboys Stadium and even snatches of Fort Worth. Guests arrive. Conventionally, if I were at my home, I’d have made a frantic run to Whole Foods or Tom Thumb for cheese, fruit, or whatever they had on hand ready-made. But life at The Ritz-Carlton Dallas is different: you ring up the kitchen or Dean Fearings and they happily prepare your hors d’oeuvres, sending up a complete wait staff. And so we had folks stirring up pumpkin shooters and mini wasabi filets, serving vino. For two hours we nibbled and chatted as the rain settled in over Dallas and moved east — our balcony view of Dallas was nice and dry. Oh yes: at some point I said something about being  chilled, and like magic Thomas Smyth, Director of Residences, had a fire glowing in the fireplace at the touch of a button.

Next thing you’ll tell me, I said, is that I can turn on the fireplace from my key fob.

7:30 pm: Dinner for four at Fearings. By now our cocktail guests had departed — Halle and Ali to a concert, Pam to dinner, Anna to her babies, Jeanne, Glenn, Sara and Gillea to Cattle Barons. By now it was pouring but the four of us footed the skybridge that connects The Tower Residences to the hotel. Neither of us curly girls frizzed. In fact, I had no idea how much it was raining until later.

8:00 pm: We enjoy the meal of a lifetime at Fearing’s, one of the driving reasons why many people buy Ritz real estate: you’ve got the Number One restaurant in hotel dining (dry) steps away, available for in-home catering, and a boost on reservations. In fact, Barbara Capasso personally escorted us to the restaurant lest we get lost. Or wet.

“Are you doing this just because I am a writer?” I asked.

“No, we treat all our guests like this,” she said. “We are renown for our personalized, attentive service.”

And yes, when we finished dinner — a sampling of Dean’s signature Tortilla Soup, Cast Iron Alaskan Halibut on Gulf Lump Crab “Succotash”with Tabasco/Bacon Gastrique and Fried Green Tomatoes, Maple-Black Peppercorn Soaked Buffalo Tenderloin on Anson Mills Jalapeño Grits and Crispy Butternut Squash Taquito, Barbara was there to roll us escort us home.

In 1604 For Twenty-Four, Ctd.

Really my favorite hallway, this leads to the sky-bridge that saved us from Cattle Baron’s weather — it connects The Tower Residences to the hotel and Dean Fearings.

In 1604 For Twenty-Four, Ctd.

Vestibule to The Tower Residences pool.

In 1604 For Twenty-Four, Ctd.

The lobby of our new home on Saturday, The Tower Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas. That chocolate brown onyx floor is almost good enough to eat, and clean enough to eat off of!

In 1604 for Twenty-Four: Saturday Night at the Ritz-Carlton Residences’ Newest Tower

Saturdays go something like this: clean house, killer work out class, home to recover and hop in the pool with the dogs if weather permits, after which I usually walk around the exterior of my house and make note of what needs to be done. If I don’t get someone out to clean my windows the  mud wasps will have eminent domain. I have a dead juniper next to my front door. The yard man needs to pay more attention to the Japanese garden, which looks more like Hiroshima, the summer color is going going gone and it’s time to shell out money for think fall color. The pecans are raining on my sidewalk faster than I can sweep them, yielding enormous squirrel scat, and there’s a duck pooping in the pool, on my deck. So much for a swim. No wonder that by four pm, I’m hitting the bottle and re-thinking my love affair with home ownership.

So when the Ritz-Carlton Dallas asked if we’d like to try on living in one of their newest homes — to be unveiled tomorrow — I said not just yes but HELL YES and told the squirrels to stuff themselves.

2:00 p.m We pack our bags for a night of elegance, dinner at Fearings,  and (yard maintenance be damned, or at least postponed), a Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas spa: I slip into a cocktail dress and fold up work-out clothes, tee shirts, bathing suit (which I ended up leaving on my dresser) and make-up. Also throw in an elegant black velour lounging outfit with tags still hanging — never worn since I never “lounge” in my own home.

3:58 p.m. Arrive at the 23-story Tower Residences at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, pulling the car into the port-cohere at our new address: 2555 North Pearl Street. We are greeted by none other than Ritz-Carlton General Manager Roberto van Geenen; Joseph Pitchford, Senior Vice President, development, Crescent Real Estate Equities L.L.C.; and Barbara Capasso, Residences Manager, with champagne. The Robert A.M. Stern regency-style building exterior is similar — identical, actually — to it’s twin tower and the hotel, the pale brick and cast stone. Most definitely a New York City elegance. The interior lobby is dramatic with white onyx floors bordered by rich chocolate brown and, a concierge counter bearing the most beautiful russet-colored stone slab I have seen to date: rich maple wood paneling everywhere. Unlike Tower One, this lobby is more of a rectangle, with a warm residence sitting room, a library, Chinese-red dining/board room,  private exercise room with a cushioned floor, individual lock and key wine-storage units for each homeowner, and gateway to a gorgeous, 80 foot long pool and spa flanked by Jerusalem Palms. There is an exterior fireplace and the entire deck, chairs, chaise lounges, pillows are new, spotless, squirrel and duck-free.

There is a fireplace in the lobby as well, and it is lit, warm and welcoming on what will soon be an historically rainy day in North Texas.

And so begins one of my most amazing 24 hours ever…

Back By Popular Demand: House Porn on Shadywood Lane

This house is so gorgeous I had to Twitter pics while touring. The owners are from the Bay area and clean California influence is  everywhere, from the uncluttered interiors to the outdoor living-friendly patio with Adirondack rocks around the salt water pool — a model pool for Harold Leidner’s ads. The approximately 7912 square foot home is on one of Bluffview’s most desired streets, and while built in 1952, the home is effectively new from the ground up, with two major remodels in 2000 and 2007. I can think of no better home for a party: walking paths take you from the pool to the rock spa and back to a hidden fire pit. Two bedrooms down including the master, which has a gorgeous bathroom, walk-in shower, and spacious master his and her closet. Detail to steal: marble surfaced island in master closet perfect for packing with full storage beneath. Three bedrooms with baths up plus a game room and snack bar. The outside covered kitchen and fireplace/patio is glorious, but I think my favorite part of this home is the hardwood floors — hand scraped in the kitchen and family room, smooth walnut in the formal areas, the various surfaces imparting a lived-in, old home feel to a home that is very much a spring chicken. Price Tag: $3,550,000 — not bad, actually, for Bluffview.

Dallas Real Estate: Prepare For Most Ghoulish Decor Contest

To tell you the truth, I hate this time of year. I am a summer gal, pink is my fave color, but the minute September rolls in we go into pumpkin overload way too early so the things are all rotten come October 31. But who am I to rain on your ghoulish decor campaign?

Apples to Zinnias, located in The Plaza at Preston Center, which is having a huge party benefiting Wednesday’s Child this Thursday, is challenging Halloween-decor obsessives to deck their houses  and submit photos of their creations for a grand prize. The head witch at Apples to Zinnias will judge the photos for the most festive décor and the winner will receive just what they need: a Halloween gift to add to their decoration collection. Submit your photos by email to appplestozinnias@sbcglobal.net,  or stop by at 4024 Villanova, Dallas, TX 75225. The  witches will also send them by broomstick express to DallasDirt for publication.

Now if you’re talking bloody haunted houses, slimy brains and noodle guts, call me stat.

Dallas Real Estate Celebrates Architecture and Dallas Architects

I caught up with Lucy and Henry Billingsley, Honorary Chairs for the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Dallas Architectural Foundation’s thirteenth annual Celebrate Architecture Gala and Community Honor Awards Saturday night, emceed by Jeff Whittington. (Trust me, his vocal work was far briefer than that mouthful of a title.) Also there: Veletta Forsythe Lill, Executive Director of The Dallas Arts District. We had just landed at D/FW back from the east coast. The theme of the night was “Urban Renaissance”, which super accurately describes the transformation our city is undergoing. As I told Mark Hoesterey of Stocker Hoesterey Montenegro Architects, I had been in Boston at 7:00 a.m. that morning, crossing that city’s Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge on I-93 en route to Logan. While watching for Logan signs, I told my husband, soon we’ll have this elegance in Dallas plus more: majestic bridges, a 68 acre Arts District, and of course the new AT&T Performing Arts Center. Four Arts District structures designed by four of the world’s leading architects plus the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and — finally!!! — a downtown park: our downtown skyline is almost an apocalyptic renaissance, given the new commercial and residential real estate. And I remember when, back in 1980, I thought everyone had taken shelter at 7:00 pm when downtown was an after-hours ghost town. The 2009 AIA Community Honor Awards went to Lucy Crow Billingsley, Lyda Hill, Virginia Savage McAlester, and Anita N. Martinez for her Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico. Honor citations went to AT&T’s Performing Arts Center, Downtown Dallas (guys do great promos!), Hamilton Properties, and Woodall Rogers Park Foundation led by Linda Owen. In the craftsmen realm,  Haley-Greer snagged an award for innovation in the glass and glazing industry — H-G created and installed the red glass curtain wall that tops the Winspear Opera House and also worked on Cowboys Stadium; McCarthy Building Companies — W Hotel, Residences at Victory Park, and the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre — was also lauded, and recently ranked by Engineering News Record as the tenth largest domestic general builder in the nation. And Rosa Finsley, ASLA, was honored for her work in landscape design which you can see sprouting up at Montgomery Farm. Firm of the year: Omniplan, the firm that brought us NorthPark Center’s beautiful bones, and Regan George, AIA, was given the AIA’s Lifetime Achievement award for leading emphasis on environmental sustainability long before green was an architectural or building buzzword. Great celebration of great contemporary architecture.

Bridging the Trinity

Briggs-Freeman are stepping up in a big way to promote the upcoming Bridging the Trinity party on the Continental Bridge, this Friday evening, September 25.  Not to mention the folks who host this blog!  Lots of influential people, including the (IMHO) genius architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava.

Now THIS Is A House Tour!

Photo by Charles D. Smith AIA

This year’s AIA Dallas house tour, November 7-8, has some truly extraordinary houses designed by some of the very best local architects.  One of the houses, on Labron, we wrote about here many moons ago.  Designed by Kelly Mitchell and Sean Garman, two of the most fun folks around as well as really good architects, it’ll be well worth the price of admission on its own.  And I want to see the rest, so see you there.

Casa View Oaks

I’m back–temporarily–to help Candy out as she takes care of family business.

I’m always amazed at how many tucked-away neighborhoods there are in Dallas that I’ve never heard of.  With really good architecture.

Just drove over to an area that I guess might be called Casa View Oaks, in an area of east Dallas that can only appreciate, near Ferguson and Oates.  There’s quite a pocket of Cliff May-designed houses over there that are crying out for young families to come on in, buy a house for next to nothing, do some restoration work, and end up with affordable architectural significance.

Cliff May, who is sometimes referred to as the Father of the California Ranch House, practiced throughout the mid century (20th, right).  His houses were notable for their close connection between interior and exterior spaces, which tends not to be the case with the ranch houses we all grew up in.  The houses over in Casa View Oaks clearly have it.  One current listing, 2651 Andrea Lane, is on the market for $146,000 and has been a hot topic over at livemodern.com.   Take a look at the photos.

Dallas Real Estate Break: Dallas Dirt In Wedding Mode

Off in wedding mode to enjoy our precious daughter’s nuptials this coming weekend, so I’ll be taking a bit of a posting break unless, of course, I find some fab house porn on our trip down the aisle. (You just never know.) Meantime, Josh Hixson will continue to bring you the real estate headlines just as he always has, and Catherine Horsey will chime in with a few posts just to keep the home fires burning. Thanks to both!

But this momentous event gives me the opportunity to suggest that in the meantime, you go get yourself some Sweet Charity. Hop on over to our newest, the Sweet Charity Philanthropy Blog, edited by my dear and quite brilliant friend Jeanne Prejean.  If there is one woman in Dallas who knows everyone and their five (legitimate) great aunts, it’s Jeanne. Trust me: she knows the illegitimate ones, too. Jeanne launched the newest D Blog last week — alas, I was ensconced in wedding shower la la land (love the flowers!) . May I suggest that if you miss me,  Jeanne will more than entertain. Lucky you — you can have us both.

Now does anyone have the name of a decent waterproof mascara?